Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance - Political Science Book on US Foreign Policy & Geopolitical Strategy | Perfect for History Buffs, Political Scholars & International Relations Students

This is a significant book. One that should replace the media and be used as a permanent historical reference work. The masks applied to the media, the masses, those diverted into activities that consume smaller issues and cloud judgment on objectivity are very much in affect. This book "needs" to be out there more than reading some opinionated account. Only in years of time, when the dust settles and emotional detachment of the nationalist and patriot is attained, only then can this be seen as objective history by the majority. This book is on the top of my list of high significance.Some of the thoughts contained: Two superpowers: the U.S. government and masses of public opinion. Two enemies: the domestic and the foreign. The domestic masses and the Wilsonian ideal that the "good" only exists in the hands of few responsible decision makers who know what's best for everyone else and the need to protect them; to subdue public opinion, the "wild beast," with propaganda and information control. And today with the new laws on terrorism, censorship without warrants, wiretapping and donating to the wrong Muslim or other organization can get you arrested and deported. And in the foreign policy, the transforming global order in domination as seen in from the recent past in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Central America with U.S. backed dictatorships of terror, in power for their support of U.S. economic interests, who employ the most deadly murderous and genocidal regimes. A great comparison is given from John Stuart Mill's British imperialism against India. and in approval of France's imperialism against Algeria.Critics result to name calling in unfairly labeling all those who love America but do not approve of its imperialistic actions as "Anti-American," who "hate America, a common tactic used in the past by fascist and Soviet authoritarianism. And the rhetoric used over and over again by aggressors such as Hitler in "preserving the peace of the German and Czechoslovakian people," esteeming his hostile take over. Apparently all political actions are accompanied by a noble intent.A new form of U.S. imperial strategy that overrides all U.N. Security counsel, that is now preemptive, evidence or not, Iraq the new Petri dish of experiment and NATO the new instrument of power which acts on its own discords. While the WTO and IMF enforce the neoliberalization of privatizing the third world into U.S. raw materials, populations thrown into the poverty of production commodities for the developed countries luxuries, NATO is enforcing U.S. interests through one party power, contradictorily allowing some countries to violate treaties, laws and own nuclear weapons and others attacked for the same, as can be seen in the repeated bombing of Serbia and its civilian targets. The rule of law rests in the U.S. alone, unilaterally, WMD or not, or what ever reason sees fit at the time of questioning. Punishments and rewards, intimidative domination of leverage are applied to other countries on votes in the U.N. security counsel, and even then, action will take place regardless. A new domestic policy of "terrorist activities" applied to citizens who now are legally refused the right of a lawyer and civil liberties has gone into affect.Today, U.S. citizens are not as submissive as they were when Kennedy attacked Viet Nam as can be seen by protests and around the world. What worries people globally is not the threat of Saddam Hussein, Iraq or North Korea, but that of U.S. hegemony and world domination through force.U.S. view of underdeveloped countries as "children" that must be disciplined and shown who is in charge: Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela, Mexico and Iran dared to attempt to control its own sources. An excellent objective view of the declassified documents and close call in the Cuban missile crises.The real threat of the cold war was not Soviet aggression but the idea that resistance to U.S. economic interests would spread as the post WWII peace was in reality from the threat of U.S. might.Thoughts on NATO and Iraq, on Turkey and U.S. support of its killings of Kurds. Not until their resistance in the Iraq war did it come out in the papers - U.S. backing is much more than simply "tolerance," as the media claims. Also the NATO bombings with lack of evidence of the Serb genocides and without UN Security Counsel permissions. The U.S. Drug policy equals U.S. economic interests. And suppression in Columbia; crimes are privatized in accord with neoliberal practice with private militias and private companies hired for fumigation which eradicate personal responsibilities. We can learn by history of the 19th century colonialism as insight in this.More thoughts are: the similar cowboy aggressive attributes between JFK and GW Bush II; Guatemala democratic peoples government destroyed by U.S., Castro has the majority of support, but U.S. knows what's best for the Cuban people; Kennedy's Operation Mongoose against Cuba is more with severe deception with false accusations and set ups against Cuba; haphazard raids against Cuba killing innocent civilians including an airliner of 73 passengers; Jeb Bush pardons the terrorists, while Bush I hardened the embargo, refusing hurricane aid, food and medicine; U.S. murder of Latin American Priests and a housemaid and her daughter who dared speak out for self rule and economic interests; U.S. support for Algerian torture; bombing Libya without evidence of so called drugs while pushing tobacco on others; undoing the "new deal" and privatization for the rich only; the answer to domestic unpopularity - raise up nationalism with the enemy to destroy and U.S. has made it clear - no UN security counsel needed, they, and the rest of the world, must "catch up" - Collin Powell; Washington's refusal to attend UN discussions on post war reconstruction; the Panama and Afghanistan invasions; the sanctions has already destroyed Iraq before the war; how the world court and the UN Security Counsel condemned the U.S. killings in Nicaragua - only the U.S. and Israel vetoed. If a country harbors so called terrorists than they are the same according to Bush and the U.S. harbors the same. Also the human rights abuses of Israel/And the claim of Washington and the media that "Old Europe" is paranoid anti-American and undemocratic really means: "Strong governments disregard their populations and "accept the role," assigned to them by the global ruler (U.S.); weak governments succumb to the will of 95 percent of their population." P. 136Much more book for this review. Highly recommend this book.And so will the other superpower, the masses of the public, succeed despite it all?